A federal judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit against a Minnesota state trooper following the fatal shooting of a man during an attempted traffic stop along a Twin Cities highway last year.

Judge Nancy Brasel granted Trooper Ryan Londregan’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Ricky Cobb II’s family.

Cobb, 33, was stopped on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis around 2 a.m. on July 31, 2023, after officers said they could not see his car’s taillights. When officers entered the vehicle to attempt to arrest Cobb for allegedly violating a Ramsey County protection order, Cobb began to drive away. Londregan fired several shots at the vehicle, fatally wounding Cobb.

The complaint, filed last April, alleged that Londregan and a second police officer at the scene, Brett Seide, used excessive force and violated Cobb’s civil rights. Londregan filed a motion to dismiss in May and a hearing on that motion was held in late July.

In an order filed Wednesday, Brasel wrote that the court “cannot conclude that Londregan violated a clearly established right when he made the decision to shoot Cobb.”

Brasel wrote that Londregan is entitled to qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that protects police and other officials from civil suits unless they knowingly violate a clearly established constitutional right.

Brasel also wrote that evidence collected at the scene contradicted the claims made in the lawsuit, and she wrote that “it was objectively reasonable for an officer to use deadly force to neutralize what he reasonably believed to be a risk serious physical harm to another person, including a comrade.” officer.”

Londregan had also faced criminal charges in connection with Cobb’s death. Those charges were dropped in June, with Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty saying it was impossible to prove unauthorized use of force.

Seide, the second trooper named in the Cobb family’s civil lawsuit, also decided to dismiss the case. A hearing on this motion was held on October 9; a decision is pending.